Dating violence is increasingly recognized as a significant problem among adolescents, even those in middle school. What is even more surprising is the fact that females report perpetrating more dating violence than males. Studies have shown that exposures to physical violence at many levels (individuals, peers, family, community) is generally more predictive of dating violence for males than females. A different type of violence exposure, that of relational aggression, remains a largely unexplored risk for dating violence behavior. Relational aggression, defined as behaviors aimed at inflicting harm through the manipulation of relationships, threat of damage to them or both, is often characteristic of girls. In conjunction with a CDC funded dating violence project, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship of relational aggression and relational victimization to dating violence behaviors among urban, African American middle school students. Examining relational aggression in middle school students may provide a greater understanding of gender differences in dating violence behaviors and is necessary to better inform preventative practices. [unreadable] [unreadable]